Saxoprint

The Great British Postcard Competition

Triple award-winning UGC campaign makes a mark on the British design community.

The Challenge

Saxoprint is one of the leading online printing services in Europe. Freestyle launched their community platform ProStudio to help establish their brand in the UK and shake up the print market.

After building and testing the platform, we needed a recruitment strategy to encourage UK designers and businesses to register for ProStudio and enjoy the benefits of a new online print community.

Saxoprint needed to engage with an audience of graphic designers, illustrators and artists in a meaningful way that would harness the power of social media and organic search. Our solution had to be something that connected with the genuine passions of this creative audience.

Strategy

Freestyle embarked on a content marketing strategy to recruit the best young print designers.

We created ‘The Great British Postcard Competition’ (#TGBPC) led by head judge John Lydon, the ex-Sex Pistols and PiL frontman. The campaign was designed to bring the Saxoprint brand and ProStudio community to the attention of top British design talent, and appeal to the creative heart of every designer.

The online competition challenged the design community to capture modern Britain on a postcard. At a time of political upheaval and profound technological change, #TGBPC presented an opportunity for creatives to express their unique perspectives on the state of the nation.

John Sheehy Interview: The Great British Postcard Entrant

“I was overwhelmed by the entries. It made my decision making process difficult, because I became so involved with each little postcard achievement.

I just let them hit me emotionally.” John Lydon, Sex Pistols, PiL and Head Judge in TGBPC

Results

The Great British Postcard Competition went viral, making headlines on Channel 4 News and attracting over 140,000 views on YouTube. This resulted in over 50,000 votes cast by the public, over 2000 opt-in email addresses, 66 per cent increase in business signups, 53 per cent increase in print orders through ProStudio, and three industry awards for the campaign.

All this exposure and social media engagement was secured without any paid media. Just a great creative concept that caught the imagination of the creative community and resulted in a wealth of user-generated content.

Leading with 10,306 votes, Lee O’Brien’s entry “They said it would be sunny” won the peer award.

The business as a whole also profited greatly from the campaign, with business-related results including:

PROStudio seeing a 315 per cent increase in designers signing up to the platform during the campaign

48 per cent of those who downloaded the competition templates entered #TGBPC, making it a highly engaging campaign

66 per cent increase in new businesses signing up to the platform

New commissioned work through PROStudio increased by 53 per cent

537 people attending the Awards Night in London.

“We are delighted with how well the Great British Postcard Competition has resonated with the UK’s creative community. We never envisaged this campaign making national news headlines with a paid budget of exactly zero pence. We smashed all our targets for postcard submissions and platform registrations and had a blast in the process.” Stephan Strehlow, Head of Marketing at SAXOPRINT